INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PURE AND APPLIED RESEARCH IN ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY A PATH FOR HORIZING YOUR INNOVATIVE WORK RABINDRANATH TAGORE S GITANJALI: A SOURCE OF EXPERIENCING PEACE AND HARMONY PROF. S. R. THAKARE Assistant Professor, I. B. S. S. College of Engineering, Amravati Accepted Date: 05/03/2015; Published Date: 01/05/2015 Abstract: Rabindranath Tagore, the minstrel of Mother India, occupies a frontal position in the galaxy of the prophets of Humanism. He became the first ever Asian writer to be awarded a Nobel Prize in 1913 for translated version of his cycle of song poems, Gitanjali. It is noteworthy to know that Rabindranath Tagore s creations and activities has a common feeling that is his love for Man in other words his love for humanity by enforcing the values of humanity such as peace and harmony in the nation at large. Tagore s poetry Gitanjali reflects his desperate efforts to see the world to live in peace and harmony in reality. He strives hard and hard to foster the values of humanity and bring the happiness in the land by encouraging the masses to love one another, live in peace and lead a harmonious life full of contentment. Tagore s goal is to channelize the streams of nationalism to the direction of universalism by freeing human soul from all bondage and pettiness of the world and thereby transcending itself into a search for universal love and brotherhood that the Lord provides to the mankind. This paper is an attempt to get a glimpse of Tagore s philosophy of humanism. This paper aims at studying Rabindranath Tagore s Poetry Gitanjali as the poetry that fosters peace and harmony in the Nation at large. Keywords: Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore. \ Corresponding Author: PROF. S. R. THAKARE Access Online On: www.ijpret.com How to Cite This Article: PAPER-QR CODE S. R. Thakare, IJPRET, 2015; Volume 3 (9): 76-80 76
INTRODUCTION Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is distinguished for being a man with numerous dimensional personalities and is the most eminent Bengali renaissance poet, philosopher, essayist, critic, composer and educator who dreamt of a harmony of universal humanity among the people of different origin through freedom of mind and spiritual sovereignty. Rabindranath Tagore occupies a fore position in the galaxy of the prophets of Humanism. He became the first ever Asian writer to be awarded a Nobel Prize in 1913 for translated version of his cycle of song poems entitled Gitanjali. Rabindranath Tagore creations and activities has a common feeling that is his love for Man in other words his love for humanity by enforcing the values of humanity such as peace and harmony in the nation at large. He was a passionate Indian, but his nationalism transcendent into universalism, where one may find out a unique unification of the best of the East and that of the West. Tagore played a very important and a noteworthy part in India s freedom struggle and his efforts were appreciated by both Gandhi and Nehru and after independence, India chose a song of Tagore "Jana Gana Mana Adhionayaka" as its National Anthem. The citizens of Bangladesh also choose one of Tagore's songs ("Amar Sonar Bangla" which can be translated as "My Golden Bengal") as its National Anthem. Gitanjali is Tagore s Poetry which had earned him remarkable success. It is evident that Tagore started writing at a very young age of thirteen and the next sixty seven years were marked by continual and torrential flow of creativity in various forms of literary works. In Gitanjali Tagore writes about many things that makes him happy and also the things that make him loose his cool. At the beginning of his literary career Tagore is a romantic and to some extent a spiritualist poet as he is the worshipper of beauty and this is also reflected in his poetry Gitanjali. For Tagore anything that is beautiful in nature, the poet feels shuddering of his own self in it and then we see him trying to write down his feeling with the help of the nature. We often see the poet encouraging and motivating the masses who are the downtrodden in the society and poor. The poet informs us that the Lord is so great that the Heaven is his Thorne and the Earth is his Footstool. He says that the Lord walks in the midst of the poorest the lowest and the lost people who have no hopes and the Lord is there with them to love and take care of them. He himself feels that he has pride and he can never find his way towards the ways of the Lord. He feels he has to become good and try to overcome the pride and only then he can follow the Lord, as his self pride is seen as a hindrance in his love for the Lord. correct them to share the love and be humane to the needy people and let everyone leave in peace and harmony. So the poet writes: 77
Here is thy footstool and there rest thy feet where live the Poorest, and lowliest, and lost. When I try to bow to thee, my obeisance cannot reach down To the depth where thy feet rest among the poorest, and lowliest, and lost. Pride can never approach to where thou walk est in the clothes of the humble among the poorest, and lowliest, and lost. My heart can never find its way to where thou keepest company with the companionless among the poorest, the lowliest, and the lost. In one way he tries to address to those people who have pride of wealth and standard to.the poet wants to see India and the whole world to be full of strength to uproot the slavery and bondages from life and attain complete heavenly freedom in life, which is resembled in the following lines: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. (Gitanjali XXXV, p.36) This eternal searching for this perfect freedom is an essential component of humanity. This dimension adds a special aroma to Tagore s philosophy of harmony and humanism. At this stage there is a significant and qualitative change in his poetic exuberance. Now the poet identifies himself as one among his fellows and prays to the Lord to give him strength to make a fruitful service towards the needy people.the poet further writes that when the grace from the world and life iof the human is lost, he urges the Lord of Peace to fill himself and the world with his eternal peace which will make everyones liufe a harmonious one indeed. So the poet says: When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song. When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with the peace and rest. 78
When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner, break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king. When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy one, thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder. (Gitanjali-XXXIX, p.38) Tagore gave all through his life, through his paradisiacal imagination that envisioned a world of love, equality, honesty bravery, and spiritual unity of all the mankind. He sees the present humanity is infactuated with the greed, wealth and power and further leaves it to those who do evil to turn away from their evil doings and their horrific moral slumber. Tagore prayers for India and in turn he prays for the whole Humanity to experience the true peace and harmony in life by giving up evil and taking up good deeds. The Poet longs for deliverance from the evil deeds and wants to enjoy freeedom in reality, so the poet says: Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight. Thou ever pourest for me the fresh draught of thy wine of various colours and fragrance, filling this earthen vessel to the brim. My world will light its hundred different lamps with thy flame and place them before the altar of thy temple. No, I will never shut the doors of my senses. The delights of sight and hearing and touch will bear thy delight. Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumination of joy, and all my desires ripen into fruits of love. (Gitanjali-LXXIII, p.64-65) REFERENCES 1. Dutta, Krishna and Robinson, Andrews, (1995) Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man, London, Bloomsbury. 2. Mukherjee, Bharati. Tagore's Poetry: Ballad of Humanism www.iop.or.jp/0818/mukherjee.pdf. 3. Sastri, K.S. Ramaswami, (1988), Sir Rabindranath Tagore: His life, personality andgenius, Delhi, Akashdeep. 4. Tagore, R.; Dutta, K. (editor); ROBINSON, A. (editor)(1997), Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthology, Saint Martin's Press. (ISBN978-0312169732) 79
5. Tagore, R.; Stewart, T. K. (translator); Twichell, C. (translator) (2003), Rabindranath Tagore: Lover of God, Lannan Literary Selections, Copper Canyon Press. (ISBN978-1556591969) 80